Sunday, December 6, 2015

Let's Eat Quiche!

One of my characters in my upcoming book likes to make quiche. I like to make it too, however, I have no one in my house who will eat it. So, I make quiche when I have some sort of social food gathering, such as I had yesterday, at the Ozarks Romance Authors' Christmas party, and I get to indulge with others of like quiche mind. Quiche is a great, versatile dish, lending itself easily to salads and fruit bowls. And, you can put anything in it, whatever you like, and it's still quiche.

So, here goes, here's how I made mine:

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 TBSP butter
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms, and chop them up a bit
3 green onions, slices
3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed and patted dry
3 large eggs
1/2 teas. salt
1/4 teas. pepper
dash red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 shredded smoked Gouda cheese
3/4 cup diced cooked ham

First thing, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll your pie crust and press into a pie plate. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork so that it doesn't bubble up when baking. Bake your crust for ten minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 and set crust aside.

Drop butter into a medium skillet and add mushrooms and green onions. Cook for 5 minutes over medium  heat, stirring often. Add spinach, making sure all the water's been pressed out first, and let it heat until the spinach begins to wilt and set aside.

Break eggs into a large bowl, add milk and salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, whisk until well combined. I actually wisk up my eggs just a bit before adding the other ingredients to make sure the yolks are broken and the mixture is yellow before adding the rest in. Add ham, cheeses spinach and mushroom mixture. Stir until well combined.

Pour into pie shell and bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is set.

Remove from oven and allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Mange!